1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program creation apparatus for an image processing controller, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an improvement in program creation apparatus which creates a control program for an image processing controller that outputs a determination signal based upon a camera image obtained by photographing an object to be tested.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image processing controller which performs image processing on a camera image obtained by photographing an object to be tested and outputs as a processing result a determination signal indicating a determination result based upon a shape, a position and a camera image of the object to be tested, or the like, one capable of changing a series of processing procedure is known (e.g. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-288568). Typically a control program for making such an image processing controller execute a series of processing procedure is created using an editor (software) operated on an information processing terminal such as a PC (personal computer). A user can transfer the created control program to the image processing controller, so as to perform a desired test on the object to be tested.
In the conventional program creation apparatus as described above, in a case where a parameter indicating an image pick-up condition or a measurement condition changes, it has been necessary for checking whether or not a control program after the parameter change is operated in a desired manner, to transfer the created control program to the image processing controller and execute the program on the image processing controller. Therefore, since it has been necessary to transfer a control program and execute the program on the image processing controller every time of operational checking of the control program, the conventional program creation apparatus has a problem of poor operability.
Generally, the operational checking of a control program can be performed on a PC by use of software called a simulator that operates on the PC. However, in such a simulator, image processing is simulated using a camera image previously held as a registration image. For this reason, this simulator cannot be employed in such a manner as to capture a camera image from a camera at the time of executing a control program and check its operation, and hence has the problem of being incapable of setting a parameter with high accuracy.